Young Karnataka cricketer Samit Dravid’s coaches applauded the youngster’s humility, technique and potential to “go all the way” despite the pressures that come with him being the legendary Rahul Dravid’s son. Samit, 18, was recently selected for the India Under-19’s multi-format series against Australia, his maiden call-up as well. He scored 362 runs and claimed 16 wickets in Karnataka’s Cooch Behar Trophy-winning campaign before doing well for the Mysore Warriors in the Maharaja Trophy as well.
“I have no doubt, Samit has it in him to go all the way,” Warriors coach RZ Murali told the Indian Express. “I can’t even imagine the pressure of the shoes he has to fill. But we make sure that in our team that we don’t discuss all that. Luckily for us, the boy is grounded, sweet, and all his team-mates have nothing but good stuff to share about him. He is pretty easy-going. He has no airs about where he comes from.”
Meanwhile, his childhood coach, Karthik Jeshwant, opined on what Dravid has told him about managing pressure and learning to “live with attention” as well.
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“Samit has grown up knowing what his father’s stature is and knows that there is going to be a lot of pressure. So that’s what Rahul and myself have been telling him, not to be bothered about any outside noise or attention. He will be judged on his own skills and what he does on the field. He has to learn to live with the attention without it affecting his batting,” Jeshwant said.
Murali also shared Samit’s mindset and technique, saying he’s “brave” in his approach and he can turn conventional shots into arial ones to pick boundaries as well.
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“It’s the way his hands move through the line of the ball that stood out for me. His head and feet position, too. He is very aggressive and brave in his mind-set. It’s the approach that had his team-mates here go ‘wow’ at some of his shots,” Murali said.”He has quite a few shots actually beyond the clips you might have all seen — the cover drive where he leans well into the shot, the straight drive, the pull of course and the ability to hit the lofted shots. To turn the conventional shots into aerial, like the inside-out aerial cover drive.”